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so, after spending a couple days in my studio, I've realized I need a real HDTV antenna. The one I have is an indoor one I bought for my mom when she still lived in Houston. It works surpwell considering its in a metal building, and I'm probably 50 miles or so from the broadcast antennae.
I see best buy has a couple outdoor HDTV ones. Before I shell out the $, do any of you lot have experience with real hdtv antenna?
I do. I've got a motorized outdoor. I'm probably 60 miles from Toledo OH and 70+ from Cleveland and pick up both consistently Detroit as well on certain days.
That being said much of the distance is over water and I have the antenna on a 10' pole above the peak of the roof.
Don't know much about the $200-300 antennas but I feel I do well with a cheap amplified. like this:
https://www.amazon.com/150MILES-OUTD.../dp/B01D8EPY96
Also can HIGHLY recommend TCL Roku Tv's, they have a really good tuner. My TCL picks up way more channels than the Vizio on the same line.
Plus the Guide for antenna TV is internet based and awesome, plus you can plug a thumb drive into the Tv to pause and rewind live OTA tv.
Many shows will give you an option to watch from the beginning or more episodes if that show is available on Prime, Netflix,Hulu,etc. One click will close the antenna input, open Hulu,etc and go to that shows page on the episode you were watching.
Hi Kev
Go to www.tvfool.com and input your zip code. It will show you what stations you can hope to get with OTA (over the air). I have a cheap ($50 Canadian) "attic" antenna I hang in the window that gets me most all stations I'm entitled to. That website saved me from investing in an expensive antenna just to get 1 or 2 more stations.
As I live on the US / Canad border, I get about 15 stations - I haven't had cable for nearly 20 years.
I first made this one - https://makezine.com/projects/digita...anger-antenna/
It did OK and I was able to hide it behind the TV as it was ugly as sin. It was better than the cheapie $10 antennas I'd tried before (a simple metal coathanger does as well!), but not as good as my present one which looks like this one, although mine was an "RCA" which means nothing...no American firms make anything anymore when it comes to budget electronics:
https://www.amazon.com/GE-Directiona...NXWKJYD5EEP4NH
Next step would be mounting one outdoors and on my chimney etc which would make my strata go squirelly. Not worth it for maybe 2 fringe stations that may or may not come in.
Good luck!
Neat feature on that TVfool site is you can click online maps, put in your address, click show lines and click satellite. you can move the "you are here" to the exact spot on your roof, input antenna height and it will show you exactly which directions the signals are coming from. You can use visible landmarks on the map to aim the antenna.
^^^^^
That's US-centric, btw.